| LED Digest 2310: Has the SEO Community Lost it? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. December 18, 2006 Issue no. 2310 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Email Crisis ==-- ~ Will Bontrager "I woke up this morning with an idea." ~ Peter D'Aprix "...my clients don't even read my emails..." <Moderator Comment> --== Website Accessibility ==-- ~ Charles Pascal "...the web designers at Layola Marymount have agreed to meet with me to discuss accessibility." --== SEO Scumbaggery ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen "Perhaps we need to put together a comprehensive list of SEO warning signs..." ~ John Wagner "Why does he have to start from scratch?" ~ Dirk Johnson "...parts of the SEO community have lost their bearings with respect to the average site owner..." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: William Bontrager Subject: Email > http://willmaster.com/possibilities/demo/RetrieveEmails.cgi > Not saying it's 100% accurate, but it's a start... - Steve Birk, LED Digest 2309 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1405/55/ Let me mention the above was written some time ago. Scraping software has become much more effective at retrieving obfuscated email addresses. The detector at the quoted URL will spot only the most blatant vulnerabilities. It can not ever guarantee that a spammer's software won't find other email addresses that may be on the page, however obfuscated or hidden. Note that the engine the Firefox browser is or used to be based on is open source. I assume that includes the JavaScript parser. It would be prudent to assume at least some scrapers include that or another JavaScript parser and any email addresses obfuscated only with JavaScript are vulnerable. > The solution is William Bontrager (http://willmaster.com). > He has cgi form handlers that solve the junk mail problem. - Mark Frank, LED Digest 2309 Thank you for the confidence and the plug, Mr. Frank. Much appreciated. But some people can't or don't want to use forms, because their server isn't set up for it or other reasons. http://bontragercgi.com/hiding_email_links.html describes a PHP method that's pretty good, as published in LED 2307 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1399/55/ Still some can't use PHP. A solution I rarely mention because it uses a temporary popup window and at least one version of AOL browser has problems with it (I've never been able to ascertain which version), is Master Spambot Buster from http://willmaster.com/master/spambotbuster/ People swear by Master Spambot Buster, even with its limitations. As far as I know, its obfuscation has never been penetrated by an automated 'bot. That's not to say it never will be penetrated, I expect sooner or later it will happen. After all, any email address that the owner goes to the trouble of hiding is most likely to be a live, valid address and one where email is seen. There must be a fool-proof way to implement one-click email without the danger of the address being harvested. There's gotta be. This is an intense wish. I'm sure it will be found. In the meantime, use the methods you can that make your email addresses least vulnerable to harvesting. And watch the LED Digest. I woke up this morning with an idea. It will take a bit of programming and some time to prove whether or not my wish is coming true. Will Bontrager http://weatherwimp.com/ (You'll enjoy that site. Go ahead, click :-) -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Peter D'Aprix Subject: Email Wow! This has generated a lot of good ideas in material and thank you all, again. But Steven Birk's and Mark Frank's posts directed me to a site of William Bontrager called "The Master Series CGI Software" which looks interesting and promising for a number of security related set ups but do you either of you or anyone else have any real time experience / track record of using these scripts, many of which cost money while others are free? There are email as well as form solutions. My one comment to a sentence Steven used, > If someone is too lazy to copy and paste my visible > email address into their email program, then they > probably don't want to contact me that bad... ... bothered me. Steven, are you forgetting that business people today are frequently carrying a load of work far greater than 15 years ago. Lay offs have made fewer people carry the work done by more people a few years ago increasing multi-tasking enormously. I think we in the design world tend to forget that. I am reminded when my clients don't even read my emails to them about very important subjects even though they will talk far longer than it takes to read the mail if I call them (life is full of contradictions). They just don't have enough time (in their minds) and are so fragmented they don't retain them even if they did skim the email. If they can click on a link, they may follow the path; but if they have to take the time to type, they probably won't. It is not always laziness, it is often lack of time. So now I only put one topic in an email, not several. As we write copy, we have to remember that as well. Even better, hire a professional copy writer who can get the ideas over in fewer words. The advertising industry specializes in this. Why don't we apply the same principle more often? Thanks again all of you out there. Peter D'Aprix - Visual Communications http://peterdaprix.com <Moderator Comment> Great points, Peter. Reminds me of something we've discussed here recently. Here are some good links with more: Reading by Scanning: A Web Habit http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/417/54/ Helping Your Visitors http://www.alistapart.com/articles/helpingvisitors How Users Read on the Web http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html -Adam -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Charles Pascal Subject: Web Accessibility > In creating a site for the mobile web, I came across > a lot of the same rules for them as for accessibility. - Rose Lacy, LED Digest 2306 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1397/55/ I wanted to applaud Rose Lacy's post in LED issue 2306 concerning web site accessibility. I am a visually impaired graduate student at Loyola Marymount University of Los Angeles in the counseling and education program. I use Jaws and have had problems accessing several web sites connected with the university. In January the web designers at LMU have agreed to meet with me to discuss web accessibility. Our goal will be to make the sites used at LMU accessible to visually impaired students. The best example of a non accessible site is www.livetext.com, which students use to post their work. This site doesn't allow the use of the tab key, which is essential for Jaws to navigate the site. I would like to get suggestions from the group concerning how to make sites accessible for screen readers. I've been receiving this list since 1999 and have learned a great deal. Thanks in advance for your help. Charles Pascal -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Chris Nielsen Subject: SEO scumbaggery > The [SEO] firm did two lame things: they guaranteed him specific > top rankings and required him to host his site on their servers. - Moderator Comment, LED Digest 2309 You would think by this time no one would fall for the typical Nigerian "Help me claim millions of dollars..." scam, but it's still going on. So there is no reason to expect people not to fall for the questionable and outright SEO scams out there. Perhaps we need to put together a comprehensive list of SEO warning signs, and have everyone that cares post a copy on their sites. Of course getting a number of SEOs to agree on the items for the list may not be possible... :-) I see these lists every once in a while and most are good, but most fall short of what I think are the full, impartial story. I think Jill Whalen just published one. There was a few items that I took exception with, but I can't remember what they were just now. From your post I have two comments: 1) A "guarantee" of some kind can be made, and there is nothing wrong with that. A "guarantee" is just a promise that if something cannot be done, the customer will get something like a refund, additional work, alternative promotion, etc. and not be left with nothing for their money. The two aspects of this are a) What exactly is being promised to be delivered? (High rankings for bad search phrases?) and b) If what is promised is not delivered, what do you get, more bad SEO work? 2) We are a SEO company and we host client sites. Some may argue, but I consider us to be legitimate... Most clients get great SEO results, but this has nothing to do with our hosting. We offer hosting as an added service and while we don't push the service, it does add additional revenue for us and offers the client hosting where we act as their webmaster. Thank you, Chris Nielsen www.nielsentech.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Wagner Subject: SEO Scumbaggery > Now he's in a financial dispute with the shady SEO, who > has retaliated by *taking his site down and holding it hostage*! > They don't have admin control of his domain name, luckily, > but they do control the site and he has to either cough up > some cash or start from scratch! - Moderator Comment, LED Digest 2309 Why does he have to start from scratch? Doesn't he have a full copy of his own website on his own computer to upload? How does he make modifications without that? All he has to do is call or email the Registrar of his domain name and ask them to change the DNS entry. And then get another host, an honest one. There are so many out there that play straight. Just Google "Web Hosting" and before he changes ask us here if we have any experience with the one he chooses. Would also be a good idea to put a lock on the domain name so it cannot be hijacked by another registrar or anyone else. John Wagner www.jewelex.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: SEO Advice and Site Owner Disconnect Adam, Your questioning of SEO practices is a good subject, and one that I have posted about in here often. I would like to continue to make people aware that the certain parts of the SEO community have lost their bearings with respect to the average site owner and real-world websites. To be more specific, I am not describing the entire SEO industry. Most people in the SEO business are good practitioners, and most of them are dealing with ordinary clients on a limited budget. In that environment, a good practitioner needs to deliver affordable results, and prove it. Curiously, we work for several firms that fit this profile. They also tend to go about their work rather quietly. When they do speak out, their advice is well-grounded, basic, duplicatable, and uncomplicated. They can explain exactly what they will do for you. Unfortunately, those voices are being drowned out by an industry that is racing toward complete dysfunction, in terms of relating to the average site owner. Complexity and mystery abound, and "make work" has become the order of the day in most SEO advice columns and articles. Let's start with the "good content" crowd. These people steadfastly believe that "good content" is *all* that it takes to rank well. One recent SEO article advised site owners to write anything and everything about their subject, no matter how mundane or useless to actual humans. Goofy stuff that would never get written, if they weren't trying to game a search engine. Of course, that's not how they put it, but that's the only way to interpret their guidance. Maybe it works, but who has time to waste like that? Most site owners do not. Yet that writer enjoys a very large following in the SEO world, and gets regular speaking gigs. All while consistently putting forward these kinds of whacky, over-the-top concepts as a valid course of action. Next week, it will be something new to fret about. Second, while they will tell you that "good" content will automatically and magically get links, they'll also admit in the same breath that good content needs to be promoted. Well, duh! Once again, their prescriptions for that, if taken literally, would send the site owner on a wild goose chase, comprising hundreds of hours of digging for "good" link sources. Usually, these link sources are not simply other relevant sites that will willingly exchange links. No way. That's way too pedestrian. The really "good" links are from sites that much harder to find. They want you to call people. Make deals. Do back flips. Cajole. Beg for links. Work extra hard! Many of these SEO advisors will gladly list dozens of ways for a site owner to get links. There are a million articles titled "A Bazzillion Ways To Get Links!". The problem is, most of those methods, when given some good-old-fashioned scrutiny, are really not applicable to most site owners, and second, when put into practice, they can be excruciatingly difficult to prosecute, while yielding very few links for the time spent. But to these people that's the "right" way to do this work. They like to call it "natural" linking, all while using a lot of forced action. There is very little that is "natural" about any of it. How does this relate to the site owner, the typical real estate agent or retailer? Well, it really doesn't. Site owners cannot apply themselves to this kind of arcane link building as a full-time endeavor. They have a business to run. The real intention of writing a lot of this so-called sophisticated, studied "self-help advice" is to generate prospective clients. Make it sound as complex and time consuming as possible. Then the reader will either hire the author, or just give up. The worst examples of these articles are from the SEO practitioners who hide behind the notion of a "few good links". They will cite examples of their work where they've gotten their client a few good links, and the client immediately went to the top of the rankings, all while avoiding the other more mundane methods. Does it happen? Probably. But they never reveal the source (or cost) of these few good links. Nor will they ever provide a shred of advice in any of their writings or books that would lead you to these links, lest it dilutes their advantage. This kind of secretive SEO "advice" is not advice at all, since you can't possibly duplicate it. It's just raw marketing. Nevertheless, these kinds of articles are now rampant in the SEO industry. More than ever. They are celebrated, widely cited, and put forward as good advice. The authors are called gurus. Very little of this kind of activity is ever questioned by others in the SEO industry. The return-on-investment aspect of the various courses of action is never discussed. It's an industry that has positioned itself to be exempt from such scrutiny, at least among the insiders. If you have to ask the cost, you can't afford them. My hunch is that the average site owner who reads this stuff is more disillusioned than impressed. Instead, they are left thoroughly confused and more frustrated than ever. At least that's what I get from talking to a lot of site owners, especially the ones who aren't swayed by the guru status of some of these SEO people. The gurus often take the most basic, proven solutions off the table as ineffective and unsophisticated, while the complex and expensive methods are celebrated as leading-edge thinking. Its a game, folks. This disconnect is starting to manifest in the form of people who buy into it, and those who do not. Many people now simply look at what works for other sites, and they just try to do the same, or more. They use experience and/or in-depth research of actual search results as a very good guidepost. Unfortunately, there is very little of that available to the average site owner. Read all SEO advice very carefully. SEO work is not free. It does take some time, effort, and money. If you have an unlimited budget, hire a high priced expert. They'll probably get the job done for you. But if you are on a budget, look for straightforward practitioners who use affordable methods that they can describe to you in layman's terms, with lots of real world examples. If it sounds hard-to-understand, secretive, and very expensive, then you are just being pitched some carefully-crafted bait. Maybe it works. But maybe you can get where you need to be for a whole lot less money. Best regards, Dirk Johnson, Partner - Operations DomainDrivers LLC www.domaindrivers.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory." - Georges Duhamel |
